User talk:Sirface
Hi there! Welcome to our wiki, and thank you for your contributions, especially your edit on the Outlaw I - Bounty Challenges page! There's a lot to do around here, so I hope you'll stay with us and make many more improvements. Before your next contribution, we would like you to read the rules of the west before making any further edits. :' ' is a great first stop, because you can see what pages other people have been editing, and where you can help. :Questions? You can ask at the Help desk or on the associated with each article, or post a message on member talk pages. :Need more help? The Community Portal has an outline of the site and links to pages to help you learn how to edit. :Please every time you edit, so that we can recognise an established user. We're happy to have you here, and are looking forward to working with you! The Red Dead Wiki crew RE: Hey, Sirface Yes, there was already a link to the Vincente de Santa article. That's why I removed it. I really should have written that in the edit summary, sorry. Also, thanks for the compliment you left me earlier. Take care, mate. Sláinte mhaith! - Hobbes (Talk) 12:12, January 17, 2012 (UTC) Re: Master Hunter Challenges I had a few goals in updating Master Hunter Challenges (and I still have some more work to do): 1. Fix the section headers. In general, links and formatting should not be in section headers for a couple of reasons. Section headers should be visually consistent so that it is obvious they are section headers by their appearance. Also, an article may provide a link to a specific section on another article. If that section header has formatting or links then such a link will not work. Beyond the formatting and links, the existing headers were also simply too long since they encompassed the entire rank description. I moved all of the content from the section headers into the Ranks section. There it is easy to see at a glance what is required for all ten ranks and it is one of the first things on the page. All of the links are intact there for visiting related information pages. This change also moves the page towards the standard section format of the wiki where factual content about an article is presented first and Tips, Trivia, and similar sections are presented later. 2. Remove redundant information. Many of the items in the Tips section provided information about where each animal could be found. This is useful information, but it belongs on the animal's article page, so I removed it from the challenge page. If you consider any particular animal, like the Coyote, there is a section on the animal's page that lists where it can be found. Now imagine if that information is duplicated on Hunting, Master Hunter Challenges, Master Hunter Challenges (Multiplayer), Sharpshooter Challenges, Unnatural Selection, etc. (and it is or has been duplicated on all of those pages). Every page would have different lists of locations over time and six or more pages would be attempting to cover the same topic. By consolidating the information on the most appropriate page and referencing that from the other pages you end up with a more complete, accurate list that is easier to maintain. Some location information could be okay if, for example, one location was especially well suited to a specific challenge. I would like to rework such items so that they read something like this, however (this is a made up example): :Of the locations listed on the Coyote article, the area north of MacFarlane's Ranch is particularly good for this challenge because of the large numbers that spawn there and the lack of wolves that could interfere with the hunt. That kind of thing would be fine in moderation, just not big lists of "here is everywhere you can find this animal". 3. Trim the page down to manageable size. The longer an article gets, the more redundant information is added and the harder it is to read through to find useful information. This is another reason for getting rid of the excess location details to help focus on what is most specific to the challenges themselves. The last five ranks still need a lot of improvement in this area. In some cases, like rank 7, only location information was there previously. It's okay to not have tips for everything - if rank 7 is particularly easy or if all the information needed for it is already on the Elk and Bighorn Sheep articles then that section can be blank. I suspect there are useful tips that could be added, such as whether the Elk killed within certain missions would count towards this challenge or not. Regarding the changes I made to the Skinning page, that was removal of categories. The wiki has a Categorization policy that I am following. Categories are a means of organizing wiki content hierarchically and the goal is to define each article with the fewest, most specific categories possible. Categories are often confused with how tags may be used in other systems (where as many applicable tags as possible are added for cross-referencing with other content). The Redemption Animals category is for articles where the main subject is an animal in Red Dead Redemption. Although animals can be skinned, the Skinning article is about an activity, not about an animal, so it is covered by the Skinning category. Unfortunately, not all of the categories are well defined (yet) and some have a lot of overlap. It's best to check the category page first (e.g. Category:Redemption Animals) to see if it has a clear description and to see the list of pages currently in the category. If it isn't obvious whether a page should be added, it's best to check with an admin. Wow, that was an overly thorough response! Sorry for being so verbose. Probably shouldn't have written this right after a cup of coffee. :-) 2ks4 (talk) 17:19, January 18, 2012 (UTC)